This summer and autumn has been marked by an interesting wave in the art scene: a focus on women. In our relatively egalitarian reality, it may sound a little strange that this is necessary, but it is. It has been said for many decades that it is women’s turn – that the great gender imbalance both in collections and in the market must be equalised, and that men should no longer be allowed to dominate the prestigious arenas. Elevating women Yet it is only now that it is actually happening. At this year’s Venice Biennale, men made up only a scant 10 per cent. Here at home, virtually all major institutions are showing extensive solo exhibitions with female artists this autumn. Some are young and up-and-coming, others are older who have unfairly fallen out of the great modernist narrative. A figure of the latter kind is the Japanese-American sculptor Ruth Asawa. KNITTING METAL: Ruth Asawa works with a sculpture in 1956. Photo: Imogen Cunningham Weightless and heavy at the same time In collaboration with the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, Stavanger Art Museum has created the first European museum presentation of this forgotten artist. It is an exceptionally beautiful and well-shaped universe that I enter. From the ceiling hang Ruth Asawa’s characteristic sculptures braided from different types of steel wire. SHADOW PLAY: The translucent sculptures create a beautiful shadow play on the wall. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen When you study the structure, it looks like a perfect textile of knitted metal. All the sculptures are designed symmetrically around a central axis, with smaller forms inside the larger as a rhythmic repetition, or as a type of form reflex. The oval cocoons give associations to the body, there is something womb-like about these cavities. But the nature reference is probably even stronger. I think of legumes and buds, but also water in motion: the drop which is initially onion-shaped, but which turns into a perfect ball of falling water in the air. LINES: The line plays an important role in Asawa’s sculptures. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen/Stavanger art museum SHADOWS: The shadow images emphasize the graphic qualities. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen NATURE: The organic sculptures have both something corporeal, but also something plant-like, about them. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen The sculptures are weightless and heavy at the same time, closed and transparent. Ruth Asawa is a master of the line. With steel wires, she creates vivid shading fields in the air, like spatial drawings. The shadow play that the dramatic museum lighting evokes shows the sculptures’ graphic qualities. Learned to draw in captivity Ruth Asawa was born in 1926, and she grew up in a farming family in Southern California. Together with her siblings, she worked in the fields every day after school. Her talent for drawing was discovered early on, but she only really learned to draw after she and her family were forcibly moved to an American internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Among the other detainees were a couple of Walt Disney’s skilled animators. In 1943, she then began art teacher training at the University of Wisconsin. Due to her Japanese origins, she was not able to access certain courses, and this meant that she was not able to complete her studies. PRIORITIZING THE FAMILY: In the exhibition you can see Imogen Cunningham’s beautiful photographs that show how art and life were intertwined at Asawa’s home. Photo: Imogen Cunningham A late bloomer When the university offered her an honorary professorship half a century later, she bluntly replied that she would rather have the bachelor’s degree they had denied her in her time. But Asawa received the most important part of his education at the fabled Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where Merce Cunningham and John Cage had their unconventional teaching methods. However, it was only after her death in 2013 that the art market really opened its eyes to Ruth Asawa. Several larger Asawa exhibitions are now being planned. In a few years, she will probably be a bigger art celebrity than she is today. PAPER: From childhood, Asawa explored the Japanese paper folding art of origami. These paper works are also built symmetrically around a central axis. BRONZE: Ruth Asawa also made bronze sculptures. This was originally intended as a model for a baptismal font. OIL PAINTING: Ruth Asawa also experimented with art forms other than the sculptural. On the wall the oil painting “Untitled” (1948-1949), in the montage excerpt from the book “Interaction of Color”, published by Asawa’s long-time teacher Josef Alber. Important cleaning job But how did the art world actually lose sight of her? After all, she was the subject of a certain interest in the field of art right from her student days. And here we are back at the old narrative: Like almost all of the post-war period’s striking, creative female artists, she was edited out when the story was to be printed. This was based on the powerful spinal reflex of the time: the notion that the great artist is by definition a (white) man. It is this important art historical clean-up work that some have worked with and talked about for generations, but which now finally characterizes and permeates the entire broad field of art. It is brilliant artistry that Stavanger Art Museum has lifted out of the shadows here. news reviews Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen Title: “Citizens of the Universe” Artist: Ruth Asawa Place: Stavanger art museum Date: 1 October 2022–22. January 2023
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Citizen of the Universe” at Stavanger Art Museum – Reviews and recommendations
